Friday, January 21, 2011

You Never Know Until You Try (or I Believe I Can Fly)

A few days ago, I came across this story. It is one person's story of how she came to love shoulder stand (salamba sarvangasana) after many years of hating it and/or ignoring it as part of her yoga practice.

I am a big fan of shoulder stand myself. I have a theory that it prevents many illnesses because it places pressure on the lymph nodes in your throat and upper chest so they drain differently. I thought this was something I totally made up but then I saw a similar idea put forth in Leslie Kaminoff's book, Yoga Anatomy, so there you go. I do know that any time I start to feel like a cold is coming on, I spend a little extra time in shoulder stand and I (almost) always feel better.

I was happy to read about another convert to this most wonderful asana. If you read to the end, she talks about working her way up to nirlamba sarvangasana, or this (as demonstrated by a young Mr. BKS Iyengar):

I thought to myself, "I wonder if...."

Answer: yes!

Effort without tension, ease without laziness. It does happen on occasion, but you will never know unless you try.